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UIE Podcast with Jared Spool: Applying Agile Values to UX Practice

UIE just published this podcast, where I have a great discussion with Jared Spool about how I’ve applied Agile thinking and values to UX practice. Here’s a sample from the beginning of the podcast, where I talk about how this thing we call Agile is really historically upside down…

Jared: …it feels to me sort of like an onion, in that you’re always seeming to peel things back, and at the core of it are these Agile values that really, I think, speaks a lot to what people are trying to do and why this really is something more than just a fad or just a re-branding of something we already were doing.

Anders: Yeah. So what’s interesting and maybe confusing for people who aren’t aware of the history is that even though the “Agile Manifesto” you know, was formulated in 2001, that was something that was many, many years in the making. And it’s really sort of turned upside-down, because the methodologies that people are familiar with, they actually existed before that term “Agile” was coined. And, in turn, those methods originated from what was generally referred to as lightweight software-development methods.

So I see myself as being more of an adoptee of these earlier, original elements that became the basis for Agile. And Agile is more just like a brand, a term. It’s something that we can all refer to. We can just talk about Agile. We’re referring to this kind of way of thinking about design in general and software specifically.